MEMORIAL 


PRESIDENT 


NATIONAL  CANAL  CONVENTION, 


A  S  S  E  M  B  L 


L J^^» 


AT  CHICAGO,  JUNE  2,  1863. 


C II I  0  A  G  O  : 

TRIBUNK  COMPANY,    BOOK  AND  .101!  PRINTERS,    51  CLARK  STREET. 


MEETING 

OF    T  H  8 

NATIONAL    CANAL    COMMITTEE. 


Pursuant  to  notice,  the  Executive  Committee  appointed  by  the 
President  of  the  Convention,  met  at  the  St.  Nicholas  Hotel,  New 
York  City,  on  Wednesday,  October  7th,  1863,  at  3  o'clock,  P.M. 

Mr.  I.  N.  ARNOLD,  of  Illinois,  Chairman,  called  the  Committee 
to  order,  and  in  the  absence  of  Col.  FOSTER,  R.  B.  HILL,  Esq.,  of 
Iowa,  was  elected  Secretary. 

The  States  of  Illinois,  New  York,  Ohio,  California,  New  Jersey, 
Vermont,  Massachusetts,  Indiana,  Minnesota,  Kansas,  Maine, 
Wisconsin,  Kentucky,  and  Rhode  Island,  were  represented. 

The  Sub-Committee,  to  prepare  a  Memorial  to  the  President 
and  Congress  of  the  United  States,  submitted  a  draft  of  a  Memo- 
rial for  the  consideration  of  the  Committee. 

The  Memorial  was  read  t:>  the  Committee,  and  after  being 
amended,  on  motion  was  unanimoujta^opted. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  HILL,  it  was    ' 

Resolved,  That  a  Committee  of  five,  consisting  of  the  Chairman,  Mr.  ARNOLD, 
and  four  others  to  be  named  by  him,  be  appointed  to  present  the  Memorial  to  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  ask  him  to  lay  the  same  before  Congress, 
with  a  recommendation  that  Congress  adopt  the  most  efficient  means  to  secure, 
as  early  as  practicable,  a  ship-canal  from  the  Mississippi  to  Lake  Michigan,  and 
from  the  Lakes  to  the  Atlantic.  » 

The  Chairman  named  as  members  of  the  committee,  JUSTIN  S. 
MORRILL,  of  Vermont,  JAMES  A.  McDouGALL,  of  California, 
A.  A.  Low,  of  New  York,  and  RICHARD  B.  HILL,  of  Iowa. 

Whereupon  the  Committee  adjourned,  to  meet  at  the  call  of  the 
Chairman. 

ISAAC  N.  ARNOLD,   Chairman. 

RICHARD  B.  HILL,  Secretary. 

1 


MEMOEIAL 

TO  THE 

PRESIDENT  AND  CONGRESS  OF  THE  UNITED 

•   ••"•.'  -"";•,..   ••...-'  STATES,          '       « 

BY  THK 

NATIONAL  CANAL  CONVENTION, 

Assembled  at  Chicago,  in  June,  1863. 


AT  the  close  of  the  last  session  of  Congress,  on  the  second  of 
March,  the  measures  for  enlarging  the  Canals  between  the  Missis- 
sippi River  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  having  by  a  small  majority 
failed,  the  following  call  for  a  National  Convention  was  prepared 
and  signed : 


,™ 


COMMERCE  BHi^EN  EAST  AND  WEST. 

CONVENTION    TO   PROMOTE    ENLARGED    FACILITIES   FOE    COMMERCE 
BETWEEN   THE   EAST    AND   THE   WEST. 

Regarding  the  enlargement  of  the  Canals  between  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi 
and  the  Atlantic  as  of  great  national,  commercial,  and  military  importance,  and 
as  tending  to  promote  the  development,  prosperity,  and  unity  of  our  whole  coun- 
try, we  invite  a  meeting  of  all  those  interested  in  the  subject,  at  Chicago,  on  the 
first  Monday  in  June  next.  We  especially  ask  the  co-operation  and  aid  of  the 
Boards  of  Trade,  Chambers  of  Commerce,  Agricultural  Societies,  and  business 
associations  of  the  country. 

WASHINGTON,  March  2,  1863. 

EDWARD  BATES,  (Attorney  General  United  States,)  Missouri. 

MEMBERS    OF    THE    HOUSE. 

A.  G.  RIDDLE,  Ohio.  E.  B.  WASHBURNE,  Illinois. 

H.  L.  DAWES,  Massachusetts.  A.  B.  OLIN    New  York. 

JUSTIN  8.  MORRILL,  Vermont.  E.  G.  SPAULDING,  New  York. 

S.  HOOPER,  Massachusetts.  PORTUS  BAXTER,  Vermont. 

SCHUYLER  COLFAX,  Inrliana.  GEORGE  P.  FISHER,  Delaware. 

AUGUSTUS  FRANK,  New  York.  CYRUS  ALDRICH,  Minnesota. 


R.  E.  TROWBRIDGE,  Michigan. 

JOSEPH  SEGAR,  Virginia. 

F.  C.  BEAMAN,  Michigan. 

A.  SCOTT  SLOAN,  Wisconsin. 

ALFRED  ELY,  New  York. 

OILMAN  MARSTON,  New  Hampshire. 

SAMUEL  F.  WORCESTER,  Ohio. 

BENJAMIN  F.  THOMAS,  Massachusetts. 

THOMAS  D.  ELIOT,  Massachusetts. 

A.  A.  SARGEANT,  California. 

GEORGE  W.  JULIAN,  Indiana. 

WM.  MORRIS  DAVIS,  Pennsylvania. 

J.  N.  GOODWIN,  Maine. 

JAMES  8.  ROLLINS,  Missouri. 

THOMAS  L.  PRICE,  Missouri. 

HORACE  MAYNARD,  Tennessee. 

F.  W.  KELLOGG,  Michigan. 

JOHN  H.  RICE,  Michigan. 

A.  W.  CLARK,  New  York. 
R.  E.  FENTON.  New  York. 
HURT  VAN  HORN,  New  York. 
M.  P.  CONWAY,  Kansas. 

D  WIGHT  LOOM  IS,  Connecticut. 
C.   H.  VAN  WYCK,  New  York. 
JOHN  F.  POTTER,  Wisconsin. 
OWEN  LOVEJOY,  Illinois. 
JESSE  O.  NORTON,  Illinois. 
JOHN  HUTCHINS,  Ohio. 
EDWARD  HAIGHT.  New  York. 
GEORGE  C.  WOODRUFF,  Connecticut. 

B.  F.  GRANGER,  Michigan. 
JOHN  C.  ALLEY,  Massachusetts. 
SAMUEL  C.  FESSENDEN.  Maine. 
JAMES  H.  CAMPBELL.  Pennsylvania. 
J.  F.  FARNSWORTH,  Illinois. 

F.  P.  BLAIR,  Sen.,  District  Columbia. 


SAMUEL  L.  CASEY,  Kentucky. 
W.  D.  McINDOE,  Wisconsin. 
W.  P.  SHEFFIELD,  Rhode  Island. 
J.  M.  ASHLEY,  Ohio. 

F.  F.  LOW,  California. 

JOHN  W.  WALLACE,  Pennsylvania. 

J.  G.  PHELPS,  California. 

WILLIAM  J.  ALLEN,  Illinois. 

P.  B.  FOUKE,  Illinois. 

W.  R.  MORRISON,  Illinois. 

WILLIAM  KELLOGG,  Illinois. 

STEPHEN  BAKER,  New  York. 

G.  W.  DUNLAP,  Kentucky. 
J.  C.   ROBINSON,  Illinois. 
CHARLES  DELANO,  Massachusetts. 
ISAAC  N.   ARNOLD,  Illinois. 

8.  W.  SHERMAN,  New  York. 
THEO.  M.  POMEROY,  New  York. 
A.  8.  DIVEN,  New  York. 

R.  B.  VAN  VALKENBURG,  New  York. 

WILLIAM  WINDOM,  Minnesota. 
R.  FRANCHOT.  New  York. 
ELIJAH  WARD,  New  York. 
WILLIAM  VANDEVER,  Iowa. 
JAMES  B.  McKEAN,  New  York. 
W.  E.  LANSING,  New  York. 

E.  P.  WALTON,  Vermont. 

W.  H.  WALLACE,  Washington  Territory. 

A.  L.  KNAPP,  Illinois. 

AM  AS  A  WALKER,  Massachusetts. 

EDWARD  H.  SMITH,  New  York. 

A.  S.  WHITE,  Indiana. 

8.  EDGERTON,  Ohio. 

F.  P.  BLAIR,  Missouri. 

A.  J.  CLEMENTS,  Tennessee. 

H.  P.  BENNETT,  Colorado  Territory. 


SENATORS. 


J.  R.  DOOLITTLE,  Wisconsin. 
Y.  O.  HOWE,  Wisconsin. 
H.  M.  KICE,  Minnesota. 
M.  S.  WILKINSON,  Minnesota. 
J.  B.  HENDERSON,  Missouri. 
R.  WILSON,  Missouri. 
Z.  CHANDLER,  Michigan. 
J.  M.  HOWARD,  Michigan. 
JAMES  HARLAN,  Iowa. 
L.  M.  MORRILL,  Maine. 


CHARLES  SUMNER,  Massachusetts. 

HENRY  WILSON,  Massachusetts. 

IRA  HARRIS,  New  York. 

S.  G.  ARNOLD,  Rhode  Island. 

L.  TRUMBULL,  Illinois. 

W.  A.  RICHARDSON,  Illinois. 

J.  H.  LANE,  Kansas. 

S.  G.  POMEROY,  Kansas. 

JAMBS  DIXON,  Connecticut. 

J.  MMcDOUGALL,  California. 


This  call,  bearing  the  names  of  the  Attorney  General  of  the 
United  States,  and  ninety-eight  members  of  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives,  was  responded  to  by  an  assembly  vast  in  num- 
bers, distinguished  in  character,  and  embodying  largely  the  repre- 
sentative men  in  agriculture,  in  business,  in  commerce,  and  in  the 
conduct  of  all  the  affairs,  national  and  political,  of  our  widely 
extended  country. 

States,  through  persons  designated  by  their  Governors,  as  well 
as  Boards  of  Trade,  Chambers  of  Commerce,  and  Agricultural 
Associations,  were  largely  represented. 

New  England  and  the  North-West,  New  York  and  Missouri, 
New  Jersey  and  Kentucky,  all  the  great  brotherhood  of  loyal 
States,  met  for  the  purpose  of  cementing  still  more  closely  the 
commercial,  social  and  political  relations  of  our  great  country, 
and  providing  for  its  better  defense  and  greater  security. 


This  Convention  was  fitly  presided  over  by  the  Vice  President 
of  the  United  States. 

After  full  discussion  and  deliberation,  the  following  resolutions 
were  unanimously  adopted: 

RESOLUTIONS. 

"  The  representatives  of  the  loyal  States,  assembled  in  National  Convention  at 
Chicago,  desirous  of  cementing  a  closer  union,  of  perpetuating  our  nationality 
forever,  of  providing  for  the  common  defense  and  promoting  the  general  welfare 
of  our  whole  country,  adopt  the  following  resolutions : 

"  Resolved,  That  we  regard  the  enlargement  of  canals  between  the  Mississippi 
River  and  the  Atlantic,  with  canals  duly  connecting  the  Lakes,  as  of  great  national, 
military  and  commercial  importance  ;  we  believe  such  enlargement,  with  dimen- 
sions sufficient  to  pass  gun-boats,  from  the  Mississippi  to  Lake  Michigan,  and  from 
the  Atlantic  to  and  from  the  Great  Lakes,  will  furnish  the  cheapest  and  most 
efficient  means  of  protecting  the  Northern  frontier,  and  at  the  same  time  will 
promote  the  rapid  development  and  permanent  union  of  our  whole  country. 

"  Resolved,  That  these  works  are  demanded  alike  by  military  prudence,  political 
wisdom,  and  the  necessities  of  commerce  ;  such  works  will  be  not  only  national, 
but  continental,  and  their  early  accomplishment  is  required  by  every  principle  of 
sound  political  economy. 

"  Resolved,  That  such  national  highway  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Lakes,  as 
far  as  practicable,  should  be  free,  without  tolls  or  restrictions ;  and  we  should 
deprecate  the  placing  this  great  national  thoroughfare  in  the  hands  of  any  private 
corporation  or  State.  The  work  should  be  accomplished  by  national  credit,  and 
as  soon  as  the  cost  is  reimbursed  to  the  national  treasury,  should  be  as  free  as  the 
Lakes  to  the  commerce  of  the  worhlr 

"  Resolved,  That  an  Executive  Committee  of  one  from  each  State  be  appointed 
by  the  President  of  this  Convention,  to  prepare  a  memorial  to  the  President  and 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  presenting  the  views  of  this  Convention,  and 
urging  the  passage  of  the  laws  necessary  to  carry  them  into  full  effect,  with  power 
to  open  such  correspondence  as  may  be  expedient,  and  in  their  discretion  to  call 
any  further  Conventions.  Five  of  the  members  of  said  Committee,  at  any  meet- 
ing duly  notified  by  the  Chairman,  shall  constitute  a  quorum." 

In  pursuance  of  the  last  resolution  the  subscribers  were  appoint- 
ed as  such  Executive  Committee,  and  now  respectfully  submit  to 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  to  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  in  Congress  assembled,  the  following 


MEMORIAL. 

The  assemblage  of  the  National  Canal  Convention,  so  great  a 
gathering  of  the  people,  in  the  midst  of  such  a  war  as  that  which 
is  now  taxing  the  resources  and  energies  of  the  American  people 
to  the  utmost,  was  in  itself  a  striking  and  significant  fact 

This  Convention,  national  in  its  objects  and  its  numbers,  con- 
nects itself  in  the  minds  of  all  thoughtful  men  with  the  political 
unity  of  the  country.  An  instinctive  conviction  of  its  great  im- 
portance and  direct  bearing  on  the  national  unity,  secured  for  the 
call  for  the  Convention  a  hearty  and  cordial  response,  scarcely 
paralleled  in  the  past  history  of  our  country. 

The  meeting  also  indicated  the  conviction  in  the  minds  of  the 
whole  people,  of  the  existence  of  a  great  need,  profoundly  realized, 
and  a  determination  to  supply  that  necessity.  That  need  is, 
enlarged  water-facilities  for  communication  between  the  East 
and  the  West,  both  for  military  and  commercial  purposes.  The  sub- 
ject of  enlarging  canals  between  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  and 
the  Atlantic  was  evidently  regarded  as  the  great  question  of  the 
times,  excepting  always  the  duty  of  putting  down  the  rebellion, 
and  maintaining  our  national  integrity. 

Under  the  resolutions  of  the  Convention  by  which  this  Com- 
mittee was  raised,  our  duty,  as  we  conceive,  is,  not  to  designate 
the  manner  in  which  ship  and  steamboat  channel  or  channels  may 
be  opened  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Atlantic,  but  to  pre- 
sent the  views  of  the  Convention  upon  the  general  subject  to  the 
President  and  Congress,  leaving  it  for  the  Government  itself,  in 
its  wisdom,  to  determine  the  best  and  most  judicious  plan  of 
effecting  the  great  object. 

The  Convention  was  entirely  unanimous  in  the  resolution,  that 
the  construction  or  enlargement  of  the  canals  between  the  Missis- 
sippi and  the  Atlantic,  with  canals  connecting  the  Lakes,  was  of 
great  national,  military,  and  commercial  importance,  and  that  such 
enlargement  to  dimensions  adequate  to  pass  gun-boats  from  the 
Mississippi  to  Lake  Michigan,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  and  from 
the  great  Lakes,  would  furnish  the  cheapest  and  most  efficient 
means  of  protecting  the  Northern  frontier,  and  at  the  same  time 
would  promote  the  rapid  development  and  permanent  union  of  our 
whole  country. 

Your  memorialists  in  presenting  the  views  of  the  Convention  to 
the  Executive  and  Congress,  will  not  attempt  to  go  into  details ; 


6 

they  refer  to  the  mass  of  facts  and  statements  contained  in  the 
able  reports  of  the  Boards  of  Trade,  and  in  the  letters,  surveys, 
etc.,  presented  to  the  Convention  and  embodied  in  its  published 
proceedings. 

NECESSITY   OF    SHIP-CANALS   BETWEEN   EAST   AND   WEST. 

The  one  great  idea  which  your  memorialists  seek  to  impress 
upon  Congress  is,  the  necessity  of  a  great  national  highway,  in  the 
form  of  a  ship  and  steamboat-canal  between  the  Mississippi  and 
the  Atlantic. 

This  great  national  highway  is  demanded  alike  "by  military 
prudence,  the  necessities  of  commerce,  and  political  wisdom." 

Your  memorialists  ask  the  attention  of  the  Government  to  some 
of  the  reasons,  military,  commercial,  and  political,  why  this  work 
should  be  constructed. 

1.    THE  MILITARY  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  WORK. 

"We  have  arrived  at  that  period  in  our  history,  in  which  the 
Government  should  adopt  a  well-considered  and  systematic  plan 
of  defending  the  Northern  frontier.  Indeed,  the  best  means  of 
doing  this  has  long  engaged  the  attention  of  the  Government. 
Reports  from  the  War  Department,  and  surveys  from  the  Topo- 
graphical Corps,  in  great  numbers,  have  been  made,  a  large  number 
of  forts  have  been  projected  and  surveyed,  but  little  has  as  yet 
been  done. 

The  importance  of  having  command  of  the  Lakes,  in  case  of  a 
war  with  Great  Britain,  cannot  be  over-estimated.  In  1814,  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  declared  that  "  a  naval  superiority  on  the 
Lakes  is  a  sine  qua  non  of  success  in  war  on  the  frontier  of  Can- 
ada." The  great  military  importance  of  the  command  of  the 
Lakes  was  illustrated  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  the  victories  of  Perry 
on  Lake  Erie,  and  of  McDonough  on  Lake  Champlain,  were  de- 
cisive of  the  fate  of  the  war  on  the  northern  border. 

In  our  past  history,  in  the  old  Colonial  and  Revolutionary  wars, 
and  in  the  late  war  with  Great  Britain,  the  principal  attacks  our 
country  had  to  sustain  were  made  from  the  Canadian  frontier. 
But  the  defense  of  the  Northern  frontier,  always  of  great  moment, 
has  become,  by  the  growth  of  the  West,  of  incalculable  import- 
ance. Certainly  not  less  than  one-third  in  value  of  the  entire 
commerce  of  the  nation  passes  over  the  Lakes.  Ten  millions 
of  people  live  upon  their  borders,  and  are  directly  interested 


in  their  security.  The  great  cities,  which  have  grown  up  on 
their  shores,  have  become  the  largest  grain  depots  of  the  world. 
Nowhere  on  earth  are  collected  and  distributed  such  vast  amounts 
of  food ;  and  yet  this  commerce,  vast  as  it  is,  these  great  cities 
and  food-producing  States,  with  their  great  granaries,  lie  entirely 
exposed,  and  invite,  by  their  helpless  condition,  ravage  and 
devastation. 

We  say  confidently,  that  this  condition  of  things  will  not  be 
permitted  to  continue.  The  voice  of  the  North- West  and  of  all 
the  Northern  frontier  will  ask,  (and  their  just  request  will  be 
cheerfully  granted,)  adequate  protection. 

EXPOSED    CONDITION   OF   NORTHERN   FRONTIER   AS    COMPARED   WITH 
THE    ATLANTIC    COAST. 

We  respectfully  call  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  defenseless 
condition  of  the  Northern  frontier,  as  compared,  or  rather  as  con- 
trasted, with  that  of  the  Atlantic.  Upon  the  defenses  of  the 
Atlantic,  exclusive  of  naval  defenses,  there  have  been  expended 
more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  dollars.  Large 
additional  appropriations  were  asked  for  and  obtained  at  the  last 
session  of  Congress,  and  yet  the  Atlantic  shore  is  more  than  three 
thousand  miles  from  a  foreign  foe.  An  ocean  shields  it  from  at- 
tack. It  is  defended  by  the  strongest  navy  possessed  by  any 
nation  on  earth.  For  all  this  we  pay  cheerfully,  nor  do  we  ques- 
tion the  propriety  of  these  expenditures;  we  only  ask  that  the 
Northern  line  shall  be  no  longer  neglected. 

Now,  we  earnestly  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  our  Northern 
frontier,  with  its  commerce,  and  cities,  equal  in  value  to  the  sea- 
board, and  with  a  shore-line  exceeding  in  length  the  Atlantic  coast, 
is  within  rifle  and  cannon  range  for  a  considerable  distance,  of  the* 
only  great  maratime  nation  which  will  ever  give  us  serious  trouble, 
and  ia  entirely  defenseless.  We  have  no  navy  on  the  Lakes,  nor 
can  we  have  under  existing  treaties.  We  have  neither  forts  nor 
fortifications,  nor  ordnance,  nor  navy  yards.  Our  Northern  frontier 
is  utterly  without  the  means  of  defense. 

DEFENSES    OF    CANADA. 

Let  us  contrast  our  means  of  defense  with  those  of  our  neigh- 
bors over  the  line.  In  1817  it  was  provided  by  treaty  between 
Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  that  both  nations  should 
dismantle  their  vessels  of  war  on  the  Lakes,  and  reduce  their  naval 


8 

force  on  each  side  "  to  one  vessel  of  one  hundred  tons  burden  on 
Lake  Ontario,  and  one  on  Lake  Champlain,  each  armed  with  one 
eighteen  pound  cannon,  and  on  the  upper  Lakes  to  two  such 
vessels  armed  with  the  like  force." 

Since  this  treaty,  Great  Britain  has  never  lost  sight  of  the 
security  of  her  American  Colonial  Empire.  She  has  expended 
many  millions  for  its  defense.  She  has  large  and  important  mili- 
tary defensive  works  at  Kingston  on  Lake  Ontario,  at  Maiden  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Detroit  river,  at  Penetanguishene  on  Georgian 
Bay,  at  Toronto,  Niagara,  Stanley,  Windsor  and  Port  Sarnia,  and 
others  extending  west  as  far  as  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior,  and 
beyond  to  Fort  Williams  and  Fort  Gary. 

GREAT   BRITAIN   RELIES   ON   HER    MILITARY   CANALS,    CONSTRUCTED 
FOR   MILITARY   PURPOSES. 

But  the  main  reliance  of  England  for  maintaining  and  securing 
her  supremacy  on  the  Lakes,  is  upon  her  military  canals.  These 
she  has  constructed  at  great  expense,  to  enable  her  to  pass  her 
gun-boats  from  the  ocean  through  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Lakes. 
These  works  were  constructed  with  direct  reference  to  their 
military  uses. 

The  canals  from  Montreal,  by  way  of  the  Ottawa  river  and 
interior  Lakes,  to  Kingston  on  Lake  Ontario,  were  constructed 
avowedly  as  a  military  work  by  the  Royal  Engineers,  under  the 
direction  of  the  British  Ordnance  Department.  The  preamble  of 
the  act  of  the  Canadian  Parliament  authorizing  the  taking  of  lands 
for  the  purpose,  recites,  that 

"His  majesty  has  been  pleased  to  direct  measures  to  be  immediately  taken,  under 
the  superintendence  of  the  proper  military  department,  for  constructing  a  canal 
connecting  the  waters  of  Lake  Ontario  with  the  Ottawa  river,  and   affording  a 
*  convenient  navigation  for  the  transport  of  naval  and  military  stores." 

In  1831,  Col.  Dumford,  of  the  Royal  Engineers,  in  his  testi- 
mony before  a  committee  of  the  English  Parliament,  stated,  that 
provision  had  been  made  for  the  defense  of  the  Lakes,  and  the 
canal  being  intended  as  a  military  work,  fortifications  should  be 
erected  at  the  entrance  of  the  canal,  and  the  immediate  vicinity 
at  Kingston.  A  fortress  of  very  considerable  strength  has  been 
built  at  Kingston.  This  canal  was  followed  by  the  construction 
around  the  rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence  of  a  series  of  short  canals, 
far  transcending  in  capacity  any  commercial  necessity  at  the  time 
they  were  built,  with  locks  45  feet  wide,  by  200  feet  long,  and 
8  feet  deep. 


9 

She  has  also  connected  Lakes  Erie  and  Ontario  by  the  Welland 
canal,  of  great  capacity,  with  locks  26  feet  wide,  150  feet  long, 
and  water  11  feet  deep. 

Such  are  the  means  by  which  Great  Britain,  sagacious  and  per- 
sistent, and  ever  looking  to  the  possibility  of  war,  has  provided 
for  securing  the  control  and  supremacy  on  the  Lakes. 

It  was  the  confidence  growing  out  of  the  condition  above  de- 
scribed, and  a  knowledge  of  our  own  defenseless  condition,  that 
induced  the  London  Times,  during  the  excitement  growing  out  of 
the  seizure  of  Slidell  and  Mason,  to  publish  articles  like  the 
following : 

"  ARMING  THE  NORTHERN  FRONTIER  AND  THE  LAKES." 
"  The  worst  part  of  the  struggle,  however,  will  not  be  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard, 
but  on  the  Great  Lakes  of  Upper  Canada  and  North  America.  We  are  glad,  there- 
fore, to  be  able  to  tell  our  readers  that  this  danger  has  been  foreseen,  and  amply  pro- 
vided against,  and  that  within  a  week  after  the  breaking  of  the  ice  a  whole  fleet 
of  gun-boats  with  the  most  powerful  of  screw  corvettes  sent  out  to  Admiral  Milne, 
will  carry  the  protection  of  the  British  flag  from  Montreal  to  Detroit." 

The  exposed  condition  of  the  Lakes  has  not  escaped  the  atten- 
tion of  Congress.  The  Committee  on  Military  Affairs  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  through  Hon.  F.  P.  BLAIR,  Chairman,  at 
the  last  session  of  Congress,  called  the  attention  of  the  country  to 
this  startling  statement : 

"  A  small  fleet  of  light  draft,  heavily  armed  iron-clad  gun-boats  could  in  a  short 
month  pass  up  the  St.  Lawrence  into  the  Lakes,  and  shell  every  city  from 
Ogdensburgh  to  Chicago." 

"  It  could  at  one  blow  sweep  our  commerce  from  the  entire  chain  of  waters. 
Such  a  fleet  would  have  it  in  its  power  to  inflict  a  loss  to  be  reckoned  only  by 
hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars,  so  vast  is  the  wealth  thus  exposed  to  the  depre- 
dations of  a  maratime  enemy." 

The  cost  of  all  the  improvements  proposed  in  this  connection 
would  be  but  a  trifle,  compared  with  the  loss  which  could  be  in- 
flicted by  a  single  raid  by  these  gun-boats  through  the  Lakes. 
This  condition  of  exposure  must  not  be  permitted  to  continue; 
and  thus  we  are  brought  to  the  question  of 

WHAT   ARE    THE    BEST    MEANS    FOR    DEFENDING    THE    LAKES? 

Two  plans  have  been  proposed ;  one,  that  of  a  chain  of  forts 
along  the  shore,  defending  the  entrance  of  each  lake  and  other 
strategic  points,  and  fortifications  for  the  security  of  each  consider- 
able town  and  city. 

The  other  is  the  construction  or  enlargement  of  such  canals 


10 

as  will  enable  our  fleets  of  gun-boats  to  pass  from  the  Ocean  by 
the  Mississippi  and  the  Hudson  to  the  Lakes.  The  objections  to 
the  former  are  grave,  and  in  the  judgment  of  your  memorialists, 
viewed  in  the  light  of  the  experience  of  the  present,  are  decisive. 

The  expense  would  be  enormous,  and  when  constructed,  as 
against  iron-clad  gun-boats,  would  prove  unavailing.  The  war  in 
which  our  country  is  now  engaged  has  shown,  especially  have  the 
seige  of  Charleston  and  the  comparative  vulnerability  of  Forts 
Wagner  and  Sumter  demonstrated,  that  earthworks  are  better  than 
regular  walled  forts,  and  that  neither  are  adequate  to  prevent  the 
passage  of  iron-clad  gun-boats. 

We  must,  if  practicable,  do  as  Great  Britain  has  done — con- 
struct military  canals,  adequate  in  capacity  to  admit  our  gun-boats 
to  the  Lakes.  Thus  we  shall  be  placed  upon  an  equality  with  our 
neighbors. 

Fortunately,  this  is  entirely  practicable,  and  with  but  small 
expense  as  compared  with  the  important  results  to  be  secured. 

Various  plans  for  constructing  and  enlarging  canals,  to  enable 
gun-boats  to  pass  from  the  Hudson  and  the  Mississippi  to  the 
Lakes,  have  been  suggested. 

Prominent  among  others,  is  that  of  enlarging  the  present  Illinois 
and  Michigan  canal  from  Lake  Michigan  to  Lake  Joliet,  a  distance 
of  only  thirty-six  miles,  and  the  improvement  of  the  Illinois  and 
Desplaines  rivers,  so  that  all  steamers  and  gun-boats  which  navi- 
gate the  Mississippi,  can  pass  directly  into  Lake  Michigan  at 
Chicago.  Also,  a  ship-canal  around  the  Falls  of  Niagara,  and 
the  enlargement  of  the  locks  of  the  Erie  and  Oswego  canals,  by 
which  gun-boats  can  pass  directly  from  the  Atlantic  into  Lakes 
Ontario  and  Erie. 

We  will  not  undertake  to  decide  between  the  merits  of  these 
various  propositions,  nor  whether  it  may  not  be  expedient  to  enter 
upon  the  construction  of  all,  or  to  extend  aid  to  all;  but  we  would 
most  earnestly  press  upon  the  consideration  of  the  President  and 
of  Congress,  the  importance  of  securing  at  the  earliest  practicable 
period,  a  steamboat-  and  ship-canal  from  the  Mississippi  to  the 
Lakes,  and  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Hudson  and  the  Atlantic. 

It  was  well  said  by  Washington,  "  that  if  we  desire  peace,  it 
must  be  known  that  we  are  at  all  times  ready  for  icar." 

The  military  position  is,  in  a  few  words,  this :  On  the  American 
side,  the  Northern  frontier  is  defenseless.  It  is  amply  defended  on 
the  British  side.  England  can  take  her  gun-boats  from  the  ocean 
through  the  canals  and  the  St.  Lawrence  into  the  Lakes  with 


11 

facility.  We  cannot  do  it  at  all.  Great  Britain  has  constructed 
canals  for  this  express  purpose.  We  have  no  such  military  canals. 
England,  years  ago,  did  that  for  the  defense  of  Canada,  which  our 
Government  is  now  asked  to  do  for  our  own  country.  Without 
the  ship  and  steamboat-canals,  our  Lake  commerce  and  cities  are 
at  her  mercy.  With  the  enlarged  canals,  through  our  great  su- 
periority in  mariners,  steamers,  vessels,  and  material  on  the  Lakes, 
we  are  secure,  and  our  supremacy  is  certain. 

Our  security  will  be  found  in  providing  the  means  of  floating 
"Uncle  Sam's  webbed  feet"  as  the  President  calls  our  gun-boats, 
into  the  Lakes.  The  work  done  by  these  "  web-footed  gun-boats" 
in  this  war,  "  not  only  on  the  deep  sea,  the  broad  bay,  and  the  rapid 
river,  but  also  up  the  narrow  bayou  and  wherever  the  ground  was 
*  a  little  damp?  "  has  furnished  most  valuable  illustrations  of  their 
importance  in  all  military  operations. 

Surely  our  Government  will  not  do  less  in  providing  military 
canals  for  the  security  of  the  very  heart  and  life  of  the  nation, 
the  homes  of  ten  millions  of  people,  than  Great  Britain  has  done 
for  a  remote  colony  and  a  dependency,  which  she  seems  sometimes 
not  very  reluctant  to  have  detached  as  an  incumbrance. 

Great  Britain  has  constructed  the  Canadian  canals  to  secure 
distant  and  sparsely  settled  provinces,  whose  commerce  is  small 
compared  with  ours,  and  upon  which,  therefore,  the  injury  we  could 
inflict  in  case  of  war,  would  be  trifling  as  compared  with  that  to 
which  our  Lake  towns  and  commerce  would  be  exposed  in  case 
England  should  obtain  supremacy  on  the  Lakes. 

The  above  are  some  of  the  reasons  why  we  most  fully  concur  in 
the  resolution  unanimously  adopted  by  the  Convention  by  which  we 
were  appointed,  "  that  canals,  with  dimensions  sufficient  to  pass 
gun-boats  from  the  Mississippi  to  Lake  Michigan,  and  from  the 
Atlantic  to  and  from  the  Great  Lakes,  will  furnish  the  cheapest 
and  most  efficient  means  of  protecting  the  Northern  frontier" 

2.     COMMERCIAL  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  SHIP-CANALS. 

Your  memorialists,  having  presented  their  views  of  the  military 
importance  of  these  canals,  ask  attention  to  some  considerations 
showing  that  they  have  become  a  commercial  necessity. 

The  configuration  of  the  North  American  continent  presents  the 
most  remarkable  adaptation  to  internal  commerce  of  any  portion 
of  the  globe. 

The  great  interior  basin  drained  by  the  Mississippi  and  its  trib- 


12 

utaries,  with  ten  thousand  miles  of  steamboat  navigation ;  the 
Lakes,  with  their  shore  lines  of  five  thousand  miles,  and  with  more 
than  ninety  thousand  square  miles  of  surface,  these  great  Mediter- 
ranean seas  of  the  New  World,  can  be  connected  with  the  great 
river  of  the  West  by  a  steamboat  and  ship-canal  only  thirty-six 
miles  long ! 

The  commerce  of  these  Lakes,  carried  in  fleets  composed  of  six- 
teen hundred  and  forty-three  vessels  and  steamers,  reaches  in 
value  between  four  and  five  hundred  millions  of  dollars  per  annum. 
The  commerce  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  great  tributaries,  before 
the  rebellion,  it  is  believed,  was  not  less  in  value.  A  direct  union 
between  these  waters  will  be  like  the  union  of  two  oceans.  The 
Suez  canal  does  not  compare  in  importance  with  a  ship-canal  from 
the  Mississippi  to  the  Lakes.  No  day  should  delay  its  accom- 
plishment. 

The  outlet  to  the  Atlantic  by  the  East  is  equally  remarkable  with 
that  of  the  South,  and  equally  favorable  to  the  commercial  develop- 
ment and  unity  of  our  country.  The  arm  of  Almighty  God  cut 
down  the  barriers  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  ordained  that  the  ocean 
tides  should  flow  through  the  highland  passes  of  these  mountains. 
The  broad  Hudson  stretching  away  northerly  towards  the  Lakes 
pointed  to  the  sagacious  statesmen  of  New  York  the  pathway  to 
empire.  The  genius  of  De  Witt  Clinton,  quick  to  catch  the  clear 
intimation,  consummated  what  nature  had  so  nearly  completed, 
and  opened  the  way  by  the  New  York  canals  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Lakes.  Illinois,  by  the  aid  of  the  Federal  Government,  fol- 
lowed, completing  the  water-channel  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi ;  and  now  we  have  only  to  follow  the  finger  of  God,  as 
interpreted  by  Clinton,  and  consummate  what  is  so  nearly  done, 
and  we  have  an  east  and  west  Mississippi  from  the  Missouri  to  the 
Atlantic. 

WE    HAVE    OUTGROWN   OUK    CANALS. 

The  great  commercial  fact  of  to-day,  felt  and  realized,  is,  that 
we  have  outgrown  our  canals.  The  country  is  too  big  for  them. 
The  problem  is,  shall  production  stop  its  increase,  or  shall  our 
canals  be  enlarged  ?  The  necessity  of  this  enlargement  is  mani- 
fest by  the  enormous  profits  of  the  great  railways,  and  the 
extravagant  rates  of  transportation,  showing  that  the  quantity  to 
be  carried  forward  is  so  vast  that  carriers  command  their  own 
terms.  The  warehouses  and  mammoth  elevators  of  the  Lake 
towns  for  the  last  two  years  have  been  crushed  with  freight ;  every 


13 

thing  which  could  be  made  to  float  on  the  Lakes  and  canals,  has 
been  taxed  to  the  utmost,  and  proved  insufficient  to  carry  to 
market  the  products  of  the  West  This  necessity  for  greater 
facilities,  and  the  failure  in  Congress  of  the  bills  for  enlarging  the 
New  York  and  Illinois  canals,  have  led  to  a  zealous  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  West  to  obtain,  by  Canadian  canals,  that  relief  which 
is  (we  trust  only  temporarily)  denied  through  our  own  country, 
and  by  our  own  Government.  Illinois  and  Wisconsin,  through 
their  State  authorities,  and  the  Boards  of  Trade  of  several  Lake 
cities,  appointed  delegates  to  Canada,  to  obtain,  if  possible,  avenues 
to  market  for  the  vast  accumulation  of  Western  produce. 

Necessity  will  force  the  West  into  new  avenues  to  the  Atlantic, 
unless  the  present  are  enlarged.  That  both  Canada  and  Great 
Britain  appreciate  the  value  of  this  Western  trade,  is  shown  by 
their  construction,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  it,  of  the  Victoria 
Bridge  at  Montreal,  at  a  cost  of  seven  millions  of  dollars,  and  the 
Grand  Trunk  Railway  at  a  cost  of  about  sixty  millions  of  dollars, 
in  addition  to  the  canals  before  referred  to. 

It  is  obvious  from  these  and  other  facts,  that  we  have  reached 
that  point,  when,  with  our  present  means  of  transportation,  the 
production  of  corn  and  other  cereals  cannot  to  any  great  ex- 
tent be  profitably  increased.  This  condition  should  not  surprise 
us.  The  canals  were  constructed  while  the  West  was  in  embryo. 
In  1837,  the  number  of  tons  transported  from  west  of  Buffalo,  on 
the  Erie  Canal,  was  56,255.  In  1861,  the  number  reached 
2,156,426. 

The  product  of  wheat  and  corn  carried  on  the  New  York  canals 
from  the  Lake  States  of  Ohio,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Indiana  and  Wis- 
consin, in  1850,  was  252,000,000  bushels ;  in  1860,  354,000,000 
bushels. 

The  population  of  these  States,  and  Iowa,  Kansas,  Minnesota, 
Missouri  and  Nebraska,  in  1850,  was  5,403,595;  in  1860,  it  was 
9,092,009. 

The  value  of  Western  products  has  increased  more  than  100 
per  cent,  in  the  last  four  years.  In  1859,  it  was,  in  round  numbers, 
$53,000,000,  and  in  1862,  $111,000,000.  Our  foreign  exports  are 
made  up  largely  of  breadstuffs  and  provisions.  In  four  years  they 
increased  from  $38,305,991  in  1859,  to  $122,650,043.27  in  1862, 
increasing  in  two  years  180  per  cent.,  and  in  three  years  220  per 
cent.  The  amount  of  $122,650,043  for  1862,  is  exclusive  of 
$11,100,043  which  went  out  through  Canada,  making  the  aggregate 
over  $133,750,000. 


14 

The  following  tables,  compiled  from  the  preliminary  report  of 
the  census  for  1860,  will  show  the  progress  of  the  West,  and  will 
furnish  data  by  which  its  present  and  future  necessities  may  be 
more  fully  realized. 


POPULATION  OF  THE  NORTH-WESTERN  STATES  IN  1850  AND  1860. 


STATES. 

1850. 

1860. 

Ratio  of 
Increase. 

Illinois  

851  470 

1  711  951 

101   05 

988  416 

1  350  428 

36  63 

192  214 

674  913 

251.12 

Kansas  

107,206 

Michigan  

397  654 

749  113 

88  38 

6  077 

172  123 

2,732.36 

Missouri  

682  044 

1  182  012 

73  30 

Ohio  

1  980  329 

2  339  511 

18   13 

Wisconsin  

305  391 

775  881 

154.06 

TOTALS  

5,403,595 

9,068  138 

Nebraska  

28,841 

GRAND  TOTALS  

5  403,595 

9  091,979 

68.26 

VALUE  OF  REAL  AND  PERSONAL  PROPERTY  IN  THE  NORTH-WESTERN  STATES 
IN  1850  AND  1860. 


STATES. 

185O. 

1860. 

Ratio  of 
Increase. 

$156,265,006 

$871,860,282 

457  93 

202,650,264 

528,835,371 

160.95 

23  714  638 

247,338  265 

942.97 

31,327,895 

59,787,255 

257,163,983 

330.13 

Minnesota  

52  294,413 

137,247,707 

501,214,398 

265.18 

Ohio  

504,726,120 

1,193,898,422 

136.54 

42  056  595 

273,671,668 

550.72 

$1,126  447  585 

$3,957,604,697 

9,131,056 

GRAND  TOTALS  

$1,126  447  585 

$3,966,735,753 

243.23 

NOTE. — In  the  official  reports  at  hand,  no  separation  is  made  of  the  respective  amounts  of  real 
estate  and  personal  property  in  1850. 


15 


NUMBER  OP  ACRES  AND  VALUE  OF  IMPROVED  LANDS,  AND  RATIO  TO  TOTAL  AREA 
IN  THE  NORTH-WESTERN  STATES,  IN  1850  AND  1860. 


STATES. 

TOTAL  AREA. 
Acres. 

IMPROVED  LANDS,  1850. 

HI 

$ 

us 

IMPROVED  LANDS,  1860. 

Ratio  of  Ini- 
provM  Lauds 
to  Total  Area. 

No.  of  Acres. 

Value. 

No.  of  Acres. 

Value. 

Illinois  

85,459,200 
21,687,760 
82,584,960 
78,470,720 
35,995,520 
106,256,000 
48,128,200 
25,576,960 
84,511,860 

5,039,545 
5,046,543 
824,682 

Y,92Vi6 
5,035 
2,938,425 
9,851,493 
1,045,499 

$96,183,290 
186,885,173 
16,657,567 

"bY,872J446 
161,948 
63,225,543 
858,758,608 
28,528,563 

14.21 
23.26 
2.58 

'5.'85 
0.04 
6.81 
83.51 
8.02 

18,251,473 

8,161,717 
8,780,253 
372,835 
8,419,861 
554,397 
6,246,871 
12,665,587 
8,746,036 

$432,531,072 
844,902,776 
118,741,405 
11,394,184 
163,279,087 
19,070,737 
230,632,126 
666,564,171 
181,117,082 

37.51 
37.71 
11.60 
0.50 
9  77 
0.52 
1.44 
49.51 
10.85 

Indiana  

Kansas  
Michigan  

Minnesota  

Ohio  

TOTALS  

408,615,580 
214,9(54,480 

26,680,382 

$751,723,133 

6.52 

52,199,080 
122,582 

2,118,232,640 
8,916,002 

12.27 
0.05 

Nebraska  

GRAND  TOTALS.. 

628,580,060 

26,680,882 

$751,723,183 

4.27 

52,821,612 

2,122,148,642 

8.18 

QUANTITY  OP  WHEAT  AND  INDIAN  CORN  IN  THE  NORTH-WESTERN  STATES  IN 

1850  AND  1860. 


STATES. 

WHEAT.    Bush. 

INDIAN  CORN.    Bush. 

1850. 

1360. 

1S50. 

1860. 

Illinois  

9,414,575 
6,214,468 
1,530,581 

24,159,500 
15,219,120 
8.433,205 
'168,527 
8,313,185 
2,195,812 
4,227,586 
14,532,570 
15,812,625 

57,646,984 
52,964,363 
8,656,799 

115,296,779 
69,641,591 
41,116,994 
5,678,834 
12,152,110 
2,987,570 
72,892,157 
70,637,140 
7,565,290 

Indiana  

Michigan  

4,925,889 
1,401 
2,981,652 
14,487,351 
4,286,131 

5,641,420 
16,725 
36,214,537 
59,078,695 
1,988,979 

Missouri  . 

Ohio  

Wisconsin  

43,842,038 

93,062,130 
72,268 

222,208,502 

397,968,465 
1,846,785 

Nebraska  

GRAND  TOTALS  

43,842,038 

93,134,b98 

222,208,502 

399,815,240 

16 


NUMBER  OF  MILES  OP  RAILROAD  IN  OPERATION  IN  THE  NORTH-WESTERN  STATES 

IN  1850  AND  1860. 


STATES. 

185O. 

I860. 

110.50 

2,867.90 

228.00 

2  125.90 

679.67 

342.00 

799.30 

817.45 

Ohio  

675.27 

2,900.75 

20.00 

922.61 

1,275.77 

11,113.58 

With  the  canals  enlarged  as  proposed,  production  may  be  stim- 
ulated a  hundred  fold,  and  yet  still  yield  a  fair  profit  to  the  pro- 
ducer. These  enlarged  canals,  reducing  materially  the  cost  of 
transportation,  will  enable  us  to  compete  successfully  in,  and  per- 
haps control  the  foreign  market,  for  breadstuffs  and  provisions. 
Every  acre  of  land  west  of  the  Lakes  to  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
and  from  Cairo  and  even  Memphis  north  to,  and  including  Minne- 
sota, will  be  brought  practically  hundreds  of  miles  nearer  market, 
and  of  course  every  acre  of  land  throughout  this  vast  area  will  be 
increased  in  value. 

This  will  stimulate  emigration,  settlement  and  production,  and 
secure  the  early  cultivation  of  the  fertile  lands  of  the  Mississippi 
valley ;  and  secure  to  our  agriculturists  the  markets  of  the  world. 
With  these  canals,  the  Western  farmer  can  compete  successfully 
with  the  grain-producing  countries  of  the  old  world,  and  drive 
them  from  the  field  of  competition. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  increased  production  of  food 
in  Europe  is  limited  by  physical  difficulties.  The  country  is  old, 
thickly  peopled,  and  the  good  land  is  all  improved.  Mountains, 
barren  wastes,  and  irreclaimable  marshes,  offer  obstacles  to  any 
great  increase  in  the  production  of  food. 

With  us  it  is  otherwise.  We  have  a  soil  of  inexhaustible  fertility, 
a  large  portion  of  it  as  yet  unbroken.  There  is  spread  out  be- 
tween the  Lakes  and  the  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  millions  and 
millions  of  acres  of  the  richest  land  on  earth.  This  soil  has  a  pecu- 
liarity of  great  significance.  It  is  so  admirably  adapted  to  the 
use  of  labor-saving  machinery,  that  although  the  North- West  has 


17 

sent  not  less  than  half  a  million  of  her  most  efficient  laborers  to  the 
camp  as  volunteers,  their  absence  has  been  so  successfully  supplied 
by  labor-saving  machines,  that  the  quantity  of  land  cultivated  has 
not  been  lessened,  nor  the  crops  materially  diminished.  God  has 
so  fashioned  this  land,  that  with  small  labor  it  will  yield  the  most 
bountiful  return  in  endless  crops  of  food.  He  has  fitted  it  to  be 
the  garden  and  granary  of  the  world,  richer  even  than  the  Valley 
of  the  Nile.  He  causes  the  sun  to  shine,  and  the  rain  to  fall  upon 
this  land,  and  clothes  it  with  a  rank  and  luxurious  vegetation 
which  annually  decays  where  it  grows,  or  feeds  the  prairie  fires 
which  sweep  over  it  in  autumn.  We  have  the  land,  the  laborer  is 
ready,  but  without  these  enlarged  canals,  the  labor  will  not  be 
remunerative,  and  the  land  will  not  be  cultivated. 

Corn,  for  want  of  adequate  means  of  transportation,  is,  on  the 
Western  prairies,  annually  consumed  for  fuel.  This  does  not  pay. 
Shall  Europe  starve  for  bread,  and  our  rich  prairies  remain  uncul- 
tivated for  want  of  these  canals  to  carry  the  products  to  market  ? 
Let  Congress  answer  by  its  action  on  these  great  questions  now 
presented. 

By  reference  to  the  reports  of  the  Boards  of  Trade  and  Mercan- 
tile Associations  submitted  to  the  Convention,  and  which  we  be- 
lieve to  be  entirely  reliable,  it  appears  that  the  enlarged  canals 
would  reduce  the  cost  of  transportation  between  Chicago  and  New 
York  at  least  ten  cents,  and  between  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Atlantic  at  least  fifteen  cents  a  bushel.  Divide  this  saving  between 
the  Western  producer  and  the  Eastern  consumer,  and  while  you 
raise  the  price  of  every  bushel  of  wheat  and  corn  to  the  farmer, 
you  reduce  the  price  of  every  loaf  of  bread  in  every  house  in  New 
England  and  the  sea-board  cities.  The  crop  of  1862  shipped  to 
the  East  through  the  canals  alone,  exceeded  one  hundred  millions 
of  bushels !  When  we  remember  that  the  West  pays  annually 
more  than  fifty  millions  of  dollars  for  transporting  its  produce  to 
market,  it  is  obvious  that  there  would  be  saved  on  the  transporta- 
tion of  a  single  crop  more  than  the  entire  cost  of  these  improve- 
ments. 

But  it  is  not  the  trade  uf  the  Mississippi  Valley  only,  vast  as  it 
now  is,  and  almost  incalculable  in  its  future,  that  will  require  these 
enlarged  canals.  All  this  will  at  no  distant  day  be  augmented  by 
contributions  from  the  auriferous  regions  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
the  Valley  of  the  Columbia,  and  the  Pacific  Coast.  The  mineral 
wealth  of  this  region  being  rapidly  developed  is  not  yet  appre- 
ciated. The  copper  and  iron  of  Lake  Superior,  the  lead  of  Illinois 
2 


18 


and  Wisconsin,  the  inexhaustible  coal-fields  of  the  great  interior 
basin,  and  the  silver  and  gold  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  added  to 
the  agricultural  wealth  of  the  great  interior,  make  it  among  the 
most  favored  portions  of  the  globe.  To  develop  these  advantages 
requires  the  immediate  construction  of  these  canals. 


THE   WOBDS   OP   BKNTON. 

The  great  statesman  of  Missouri,  THOMAS  H.  BENTON,  a  man 
whose  vast  information  and  ideas  were  worthy  of  the  Mississippi 
valley,  in  1847  addressed  the  River  and  Harbor  Convention  in 
words  worthy  of  being  recalled  to  the  attention  of  the  American 
people  to-day. 

He  says : 

"The  lake  and  river  navigation  of  the  Great  West,  to  promote  which  your 
Convention  is  called,  very  early  had  a  share  of  my  attention,  and  I  never  had 
a  doubt  of  the  constitutionality  or  expediency  of  bringing  that  navigation  within 
the  circle  of  internal  improvements,  by  the  Federal  Government,  when  the  object 
of  the  improvement  should  be  of  general  and  national  importance. 

"  The  junction  of  the  two  great  systems  of  waters  which  occupy  so  much  of  our 
country,  the  Northern  Lakes  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Mississippi  River  and  its 
tributaries  on  the  other,  appeared  to  me  to  be  an  object  of  that  character,  and 
Chicago  the  proper  point  for  effecting  the  union,;  and  near  thirty  years  ago  I  wrote 
and  published  articles  in  a  St.  Louis  paper  in  favor  of  that  object,  indicated  and 
almost  accomplished  by  nature  herself,  and  wanting  from  man  little  to  complete 
it.  These  were  probably  the  first  formal  communications  upon  authentic  data  in 
favor  of  the  Chicago  canal. 

"  The  nationality  of  the  Chicago  canal  and  the  harbor  at  its  mouth  are  by  no 
means  new  conceptions  with  me. 

"  The  river  navigation  of  the  Great  West  is  the  most  wonderful  on  the  globex  and 
since  the  application  of  steam  power  to  the  propulsion  of  vessels,  possesses  the 
essential  qualities  of  open  navigation.  Speed,  distance,  cheapness,  magnitude  of 
cargoes,  are  all  there,  and  without  the  perils  of  the  sea  from  storms  and  enemies. 
The  steamboat  is  the  ship  of  the  river,  and  finds  in  the  Mississippi  and  its  tribu- 
taries the  amplest  theatre  for  the  diffusion  and  the  display  of  its  power.  Won- 
derful river  !  Connected  with  seas  by  the  head  and  by  the  mouth,  stretching  its 
arms  towards  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific — lying  in  a  valley  which  is  a  valley 
from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Hudson's  Bay — drawing  its  first  waters  not  from  rug- 
ged mountains,  but  from  the  plateau  of  the  Lakes  in  the  centre  of  the  continent, 
and  in  communication  with  the  sources  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  streams  which 
take  their  course  north  to  Hudson's  Bay — draining  the  largest  extent  of  richest 
land,  collecting  the  products  of  every  clime,  even  the  frigid,  to  bear  the  whole  to 
market  in  the  sunny  South,  and  there  to  meet  the  products  of  the  entire  world. 
Such  is  the  Mississippi.  And  who  can  calculate  the  aggregate  of  its  advantages, 
and  the  magnitude  of  its  future  commercial  results  ?" 


19 

Hear  SILAS  WRIGHT,  as  worthy  to  speak  for  the  East,  as  Benton 
for  the  West : 

"  I  am  aware  that  questions  of  constitutional  power  have  been  raised  in  refer- 
ence to  appropriations  of  money  by  Congress,  for  the  improvement  of  Lake  har- 
bors, and  I  am  well  convinced  that  honest  men  have  sincerely  entertained  strong 
scruples  upon  this  point ;  but  all  my  observation  and  experience  have  induced  me 
to  believe  that  these  scruples,  where  the  individual  admits  the  power  to  improve 
the  Atlantic  harbors,  arises  from  the  want  of  an  acquaintance  with  the  Lakes  and 
the  commerce  upon  them,  and  an  inability  to  believe  the  facts  in  relation  to  that 
commerce,  when  truly  stated.  It  is  not  easy  for  one  familiar  with  the  Lakes  and 
the  Lake  commerce,  to  realize  the  degree  of  incredulity,  as  to  the  magnitude  and 
importance  of  both,  which  is  found  in  the  minds  of  honest  and  well-informed  men, 
residing  in  remote  portions  of  the  Union,  and  having  no  personal  acquaintance 
with  either  ;  while  I  do  not  recollect  an  instance  of  a  Member  of  Congress,  who 
has  traveled  the  Lakes  and  observed  the  commerce  upon  them  within  the  last  ten 
years,  requiring  any  further  evidence  or  argument  to  induce  him  to  admit  the  con- 
stitutional power,  and  the  propriety  of  appropriations  for  the  Lake  harbors,  as 
much  as  for  those  of  the  Atlantic  coast.  I  have  long  been  of  the  opinion,  there- 
fore, that  to  impress  the  minds  of  the  people  of  all  portions  of  the  Union  with  a 
realizing  sense  of  the  facts  as  they  are  in  relation  to  these  inland  seas,  and  their 
already  vast  and  increasing  commerce,  would  be  all  that  is  required  to  secure  such 
appropriations  as  the  state  of  the  National  Treasury  will  from  time  to  time  permit, 
for  the  improvement  of  the  Lake  harbors." 

But  the  scruples  which  Benton  and  Wright  sought  to  remove, 
disappear  in  the  light  of  the  census  returns  showing  the  national, 
not  to  say  continental,  character  of  the  commerce  to  be  relieved : 
and  now  that  the  action  of  Great  Britain  has  given  to  these  im- 
provements the  character  of  necessary,  defensive  military  works, 
these  scruples  disappear,  and  are  no  longer  entitled  to  serious  con- 
sideration. It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  to  the  magnificent 
enterprise  of  the  Erie  Canal,  the  North-West  owes  its  existence. 
This  great  section  would  have  been  as  yet  in  its  feeble  infancy,  but 
for  the  enterprise  of  Clinton  and  the  genius  of  Fulton. 

The  enlargement  of  the  canals  between  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Atlantic  would  create  a  new  era,  from  which  would  date  another 
career  of  advance  and  progress  equally  rapid  and  important.  The 
wave  of  emigration,  checked  by  the  war,  is  already  returning,  and 
will  soon  be  upon  us  with  increased  volume. 

The  expenditures  asked  for  by  the  contemplated  improvements 
are  light  indeed :  so  much  has  already  been  done  by  Nature  and 
by  the  States  through  which  the  improvements  are  to  pass,  that 
the  cost  of  the  completion  of  the  ship-canal  will  be  small  compared 
with  the  results.  We  believe  the  Illinois  canal  can  be  constructed 
in  the  manner  proposed  by  the  Legislature  of  Illinois  to  the  last 


20 

Congress,  without  costing  the  National  Treasury  a  single  dollar, 
that  its  tolls  would  soon  pay  interest  and  principal  upon  its  cost, 
and  thus  this  great  national  work,  free  at  all  times  for  the  military 
purposes  of  the  Government,  would  soon,  having  paid  its  cost, 
become  free  to  the  vast  and  constantly  increasing  commerce  of  the 
Lakes  and  the  Mississippi. 

These  enlarged  communications  between  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Lakes  and  the  Atlantic  would  save,  every  year,  in  lessening  the 
amount  paid  for  transportation,  more  than  their  cost.  There  is  not 
an  acre  of  land  between  Lakes  Michigan  and  Superior  and  the 
western  barrier  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  including  the  Valley 
of  the  Mississippi  to  New  Orleans,  but  would  be  increased  in 
value,  and  the  aggregate  of  such  increase  would  bear  no  proportion 
to  the  amount  required  to  complete  the  works. 

There  is  not  a  bushel  of  wheat  or  corn,  nor  a  barrel  of  pork  or 
of  beef,  nor  of  any  article  of  food  in  this  whole  area,  but  would 
be  enhanced  in  value.  The  year  these  works  should  be  completed 
they  would  add  to  the  taxable  property  of  the  nation,  an  amount 
the  taxes  upon  which  in  a  single  year  would  pay  off  their  cost. 

Such  we  believe,  without  exaggeration,  are  some  of  the  advan- 
tages commercially  and  economically  to  result  from  these  im- 
provements. 

We  have  referred  to  the  commerce  and  trade  of  the  Lakes  and 
the  Mississippi  combined  as  vastly  greater  than  our  foreign  com- 
merce, and  as  supplying  the  bulk  of  our  foreign  exports.  This  is 
the  West  of  to-day,  with  less  than  one-twentieth  part  of  its  avail- 
able land  improved.  Stimulate  industry,  invite  emigration  and 
improvement  by  these  canals,  and  who  can  estimate  its  future  ? 
What  figures  or  language  shall  describe  its  greatness? 

To  render  complete  this  great  national  work  it  will  be  necessary 
to  clear  the  rapids  of  the  Mississippi  river  at  two  points,  namely, 
above  Keokuk,  and  above  Rock  Island ;  this  is  an  improvement 
long  demanded  by  every  State  bordering  on  the  great  river,  and 
of  such  acknowledged  importance  as  already  to  have  been  partially 
accomplished  by  the  Federal  Government. 

This  will  perfect  the  water-communication  both  between  the 
extreme  Northern  States  and  the  South,  and  the  same  States  and 
the  East ;  the  first  by  the  river  alone,  the  latter  by  river,  canals 
and  lakes  combined. 

The  outlay  required  for  the  removal  of  obstructions  at  these  two 
points,  to  make  good  the  navigation,  is  inconsiderable,  and  the 


advantage  most  important  iri  a  military  as  well  as  a  commercial 
point  of  view. 

3.  NATIONAL  UNITY  WILL  BE  I-OREVEK  SECURED  BY  THESE 
CANALS. 

No  reflecting  mind  who  has  marked  the  events  of  the  last  two 
years,  but  will  admit  that  among  the  influences  that  have  made  sep- 
aration and  disunion  impossible,  was  the  Mississippi  river.  The 
great  river  of  the  West  has  been  strong  enough  to  hold  the  Union 
together.  Never  in  the  darkest,  gloomiest  hour  of  the  rebellion, 
has  the  West  considered  it  a  debatable  question  that  she  could 
ever,  under  any  circumstances,  consent  to  separation.  Her  gallant 
soldiers  have  marched  right  on  from  Cairo  to  the  Gulf,  like  the 
current  of  her  great  river,  resistless,  overcoming  every  difficulty, 
triumphing  over  every  obstacle,  until  no  rebel  flag  now  floats  upon 
her  waters.  She  was  deaf  to  the  overtures  of  the  traitors,  who 
sought  by  alluring  promises  of  commercial  advantages  to  seduce 
the  North-West  from  her  fealty  to  the  Nation.  The  West  means 
to  maintain  the  unity  and  integrity  of  the  whole  country.  With 
one  hand  she  grasps  the  South,  and  with  the  other  she  clasps  the 
East,  and  she  will  never  consent  to  reach  the  ocean  in  either  direc- 
tion through  foreign  territory. 

But  it  must  have  occurred  to  every  thoughtful  mind  how  the 
ties  which  bind  us  together  would  be  strengthened  and  multiplied 
by  these  ehip-canals,  creating  another  Mississippi  from  St.  Louis, 
and  Kansas,  and  St.  Paul,  to  New  York  and  Boston.  It  has  been 
well  said,  that  the  myriad-fibered  cordage  of  commercial  relations, 
slight  in  any  individual  instance,  but  indissoluble  in  their  multitudi- 
nous combination,  produces  such  unity  of  purpose,  unity  of  interest, 
intelligence,  sentiment,  and  national  pride,  and  social  feeling,  and 
that  homogeneousness  of  population  which  unites  peoples  and 
maintains  nationalities.  Such  will  grow  up  with  a  power  which 
no  sectional  feeling  can  break  between  the  East  and  West,  when 
connected  together  by  these  canals. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  in  our  history  that  the  same  man  who  was 
the  father  of  nullification,  the  author  of  the  secession  heresy — the 
man  who  planted  the  seeds  of  this  bloody  rebellion,  and  nurtured 
them  while  he  lived — in  his  earlier  and  better  days  was  a  truly 
national  statesman,  with  an  enlightened  patriotism  which  embraced 
the  whole  country. 

In  1824,  John  C.  Calhoun,  then  Secretary  of  War,  in  advocating 
the  construction  of  roads  and  canals  by  the  National  Government, 


22 

said:  u  Let  us  bind  the  Republic  together,  let  us  conquer  space.; 
by  a  perfect  system  of  roads  and  canals." 

It  was  said  by  Montesquieu,  that  a  Republic  could  not  exist  and 
govern  a  large  territory.  There  was  some  truth  in  the  remark 
when  he  made  it,  and  it  has  in  it  still  enough  of  reason,  in  spite 
of  steam,  railways  and  telegraphs,  and  other  agencies  that  annihi- 
late distance,  to  make  it  wise  for  our  statesmen  to  bind  our 
different  sections  together  by  every  means  in  their  power.  The 
rebellion  has  demonstrated  the  necessity  of  a  closer  union  and  a 
more  consolidated  nationality.  No  agency  will  be  more  effective 
in  securing  these,  than  these  great  ship-canals. 

The  nation  has  expended  its  millions  of  treasure  without  regard 
to  the  amount,  and  its  blood  has  been  poured  out  like  water  to 
open  the  Mississippi,  and  yet  no  one  has  been  found  to  declare  that 
the  cost  has  been  too  great  for  the  object.  Such  is  the  profound 
conviction  that  we  must  maintain  the  integrity  of  the  Union  and  a 
free  passage  to  the  Gulf  and  the  Sea.  The  Eastern  pathway  to 
the  Ocean  by  these  enlarged  canals  would  be  still  more  important, 
and  would  serve  still  more  strongly  to  bind  the  Union  together. 
And  yet  this  can  all  be  secured  by  a  sum  less  than  a  month's  mili- 
tary expenditure  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  without  one 
drop  of  precious  blood. 

If  the  map  of  the  territory,  which  is  to  be  connected  by  these 
canals,  extending  from  the  West  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic, 
were  laid  over  the  map  of  Europe,  that  portion  of  the  globe  which 
for  the  last  thousand  years  has  engrossed  the  attention  of  the  civil- 
ized world,  would  be  entirely  covered.  It  would  overspread  mon- 
archies, empires  and  nationalities,  which  for  ages  have  been 
antagonistic,  belligerent — the  great  battle-fields  of  Europe.  It 
would  cover  the  theatre  of  the  great  wars,  which  have  desolated 
and  depopulated  again  and  again  that  continent,  from  France  and 
Waterloo  to  Sebastopol.  Human  beings  by  the  million  have  been 
sacrificed  in  the  wars  of  the  Fredericks,  of  the  Louises,  of  the  Phil- 
lips, and  the  Charleses,  of  the  Marlboroughs  and  of  the  Buonapartes. 
Millions  and  millions  of  treasure  wrung  from  the  toil  of  the  laboring 
masses,  have  been  expended  in  fortifying  frontiers,  and  the  opera- 
tions of  these  wars.  Rivers  of  blood  have  flowed,  so  that  you  can- 
not take  a  day's  ride  in  Europe,  without  passing  over  fields  memor- 
able for  human  slaughter.  Shall  these  scenes  of  butchery  and 
desolation  be  re-enacted  in  our  own  beloved  country  ?  Shall  this 
fair  country,  lately  so  peaceful,  prosperous  and  happy,  break  into 
fragments  ?  Shall  the  Hudson,  the  Susquehannah,  the  Delaware^ 


23 

and  the  Ohio  bristle  with  fortifications  ?  Shall  the  Atlantic  States 
contend  in  battle  with  the  generous  West  ?  Shall  we  ever  re-en- 
act upon  these  fair  prairies  and  broad  lakes  the  bloody  pages  of 
European  history?  Shall  fratricidal  wars, with  all  their  horrors, 
their  merciless  expenditures  of  blood  and  treasure,  darken  the 
future  pages  of  American  history  ? 

God  forbid.  Could  some  divine  agency,  a  thousand  years  ago, 
have  made  of  Europe  a  great  confederate  nationality,  levelling  its 
dividing  mountains,  and  mingling  its  clans  into  one  great  homo- 
geneous people,  and  made  it  free,  virtuous,  and  wise  enough  to  be 
united,  what  untold  misery  and  suffering  would  have  been  pre- 
vented. 

No  levelling  of  dividing  mountains  is  here  necessary.  God 
in  his  goodness  has  fashioned  our  country,  vast  as  it  is,  for 
unity.  He  has  given  us  one  language,  the  same  laws,  and  one 
glorious  flag.  He  has  made  one  great  nationality  a  necessity.  He 
has  blessed  us  with  liberty.  Let  us  second  God's  plans,  and  aid 
and  strengthen  by  every  generous  means  the  influences  which 
shall  hold  us  together  forever. 

What  are  a  few  millions  expended,  if  the  tendency  is  to 
strengthen  the  bonds  of  our  Union  ? 

Could  the  present  horrid  rebellion  have  b§en  prevented  at  any 
cost  of  money,  or  treasure,  how  wise,  how  economical,  how 
beneficent  the  expenditure  ? 

Let  no  narrow  jealousies,  let  no  sectional  prejudices  delay  these 
great  improvements  so  important  to  the  general  welfare,  so  neces- 
sary to  our  security,  so  favorable  to  our  commercial  development, 
so  just  to  the  Western  producer,  so  beneficial  to  the  Eastern 
consumer,  so  essential  to  the  growth  of  the  West ;  but  above  all, 
so  indispensably  useful  in  binding  our  wide  territory  in  one  per- 
petual Union. 

It  seems  to  your  memorialists  that  no  one  can  study  the  outlines 
of  our  country  without  becoming  satisfied  that  the  works  con- 
templated are  not  only  necessary,  but  inevitable.  Such  vast  ad- 
vantages at  such  small  cost  will  not  be  neglected  by  a  people  so 
sagacious  and  enterprising  as  those  represented  by  the  American 
Congress. 

Let  us  then  crown  the  mighty  military  struggle  in  which  we  are 
engaged  and  which  now  seems  to  be  approaching  a  triumphant 
close,  let  us  crown  it  by  one  of  those  signal  triumphs  of  peace, 
which,  not  less  than  the  victories  of  war,  shall  exhibit  our  devotion 


24 

to  the  Union,  and  our  determination  that  by  its  multiplied  bless- 
ings we  will  make  it  perpetual. 

Then,  looking  down  the  future,  may  we  contemplate  an  ocean- 
bound  Republic — a  glorious  band  of  an  unbroken  brotherhood  of 
States — with  its  hundreds  of  millions  of  people,  speaking  the  same 
language,  living  under  the  same  laws,  worshipping  the  same  God, 
and  over  all,  floating  the  same  flag,  consecrated  forever  to  Liberty 
and  Union. 

ISAAC  N.  ARNOLD,  Illinois. 

A.  A.  LOW,  New  York. 

P.  CHAMBERLIN,  Ohio. 

JAMES  A.  MoDOUGALL,  California. 

EZRA  NYE,  New  Jersey. 

JUSTIN  S.  MORRILL,  Vermont. 

HENRY  L    DA  WES,  Massachusetts. 

GEORGE  W.  JULIAN,  Indiana. 

THOMAS  M.  EDWARDS,  New  Hampshire. 

RUSSELL  BLAKELEY,  Minnesota. 

D.  R.  ANTHONY,  Kansas. 

T.  C.  HERSEY,  Maine. 

M.  M.  DAVIS,  Wisconsin. 

SAMUEL  L.  CASEY,  Kentucky. 


